Track and Trace by Cranes Today

Performing regular inspections of equipment is a vital part of keeping lifting operations safe, and complying with standards and regulations. This can only be done if you know when each piece of equipment was last checked. Increasingly, RFID and other ID technologies are making tracking of equipment easier to manage.

Geoforce
Geoforce, a US-based provider of asset management solutions, offers a Geoforce GPS solution for offshore cranes. It’s a combined software and hardware system that uses RFID devices, cellular-based GPS tags and satellite-based GPS tags.

Geoforce has the largest satellite deployment in the Gulf of Mexico and is the only GPS company dedicated to the oil and gas industry, it says.

The oil and gas industry uses cranes and rigging that is left in the field for months or years at a time, with much of the equipment leased from third-party companies and operated by contractors. Employees often work alone in remote locations, with limited access to traditional communication technologies.

When cranes are equipped with GPS tags, they’re trackable via global satellite and cellular networks through Geoforce’s enterprise grade platform and APIs to feed Geoforce’s web-based software application. The system can also be used for realtime monitoring. “Fleet managers can have a simple visual snapshot of the current location of all of their cranes globally and whether or not maintenance is due,” Geoforce said.

Geoforce’s software provides location mapping with oil lease, rig and well location information to easily provide reporting on the crane’s usage.

Geoforce explained the multiple uses of the software’s reporting system. “Usage reports can track the number of hours a crane has run remotely to provide accurate billing verification or cost allocation.

“The data generated by these solutions can help reduce the risk of unscheduled downtime, equipment failures, accidents,regulatory compliance violations, and employee injuries.

“Inspection reports can be linked to the assets, creating an electronic audit trail to speed through logistics and handling. Since the same system tracks the location of all equipment, inspectors know where something is to take immediate action.”

Geoforce’s solution improves tracking not only for cranes, but also for containers, baskets, vehicles, lone workers, generators, boxes, light plants, chemical containers, oil spill equipment, rail cars and emergency response equipment.

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About Geoforce

Combining a cloud-based software platform with ruggedized GPS tracking devices, Geoforce’s Track and Trace solutions bring control to even the most remote field operations. Our asset tracking devices are built for the world’s toughest field operators in these industries: oil and gas, rail, construction, mining, transportation, government/defense, and agriculture. Today more than 1,300 customers track 150,000+ assets in almost 100 countries. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas, Geoforce operates a research and development office in Bozeman, Montana. Sales and support offices are maintained throughout the U.S. and in Brazil, Australia, and Canada.